Campaign
Campaign ''is the thirteenth studio album by 404. The album was conceptualized by both 404 and KC. The album is a rock opera, re-trying the format after the two cancelled story-driven 404 concept albums ''Destitution Avenue ''and ''For the Fear of Obligation, I Run to My Past. It was released to bandcamp and spotify on May 15, 2019. Background After the third 404 album Provoke Habit, Louis wanted to make a rock opera. This album, called Destitution Avenue, would have been the fourth 404 album if it had been completed. However, after showing the in-progress material to some friends and deciding that the album was not up to snuff, he cancelled the project. The idea to make a full-fledged concept album with a story was still something that Louis wanted to do however, and so he decided that the follow-up to Beyond Recognition ''was going to be a double-album concept album called ''For the Fear of Obligation, I Run to My Past. After creating every instrumental for the album, he once again decided that it wasn't up to snuff and cancelled the project yet again. By this point, it seemed unlikely that Louis would ever make a concept album of that sort again. However, the idea came to him after the release of The Great Unknown ''(which was in itself a concept album, just not one with a story) to make a political concept album about the 2016 U.S. election cycle. Some of the song ideas from this concept were used for the album ''Every Hour, but the project as a whole never went very far. However, it was this idea that laid the foundation for what would eventually become Campaign. In the time following the release of Every Hour, Louis had thought of the original vision for the then untitled album that would become Campaign. He wanted to take the idea of the political album and re-shape it into a rock opera, finally re-trying the idea after thinking he'd never try making one again. The story would satirically comment on the nature of U.S. electoral politics and the landscape of the post-2016 election. Louis went to his friend KC to further formulate the concept into a full story. The two of them worked together to have a final outline of the way the story would progress, the characters who would be involved, and other minor but important details. By June 2017, the concept and track list outline for Campaign ''had been completed. This original plan for the track list featured 15 tracks, four of which ("Graduation," "Advocate," "Change," and "Never Let You Down") were eventually scrapped. The album began its production cycle before the release of ''Vectors, which was an unfortunate time for it to have started. A wide number of motivations and influences led Louis in other musical directions throughout this time. The first of which was very common for 404 at this point; getting side-tracked by another idea for an album. Louis had an idea to make the wildest and weirdest album he ever had, which became Butchazarkagan. He was so excited by this project that he put off Campaign for a little while, expecting to instead finish it in early 2018. A series of life events around this time and after had Louis in a very unmotivated state to say the least. Although Campaign ''was still technically in its production cycle, Louis didn't feel much passion in the project around the first half of 2018. Instead, he used his music as an outlet with ''Math E.P. ''and continued to let ''Campaign ''sit. By this point, most instrumentals for the album were done, he just wasn't writing for them or recording any songs. During the summer of 2018, Louis suddenly began to feel more passion in the ''Campaign ''project and finally began recording songs for it and finishing the last few instrumentals. This was also the time when the singles "American Revenge Fetish" and "Casting Call" were released. The latter half of 2018 brought with it yet another period of un-motivation for Louis and so the album sat some more. However, when the 2018 US midterms were coming around, Louis had the idea to release the album on Election Day 2018. This was about two weeks on from that date, so Louis began rapidly recording and writing songs at this time. Unfortunately, the artist for the album's artwork was unable to complete the artwork for that date and so the album was delayed again. This period further demotivated Louis and he stopped work completely on the album, still expecting it to be released before the end of the year. However, his artist eventually dropped out and so, without an album artist, Louis felt no need to rush the album. The last few songs on ''Campaign ''sat for months with no work done. In this time, Louis surprise released the extended play ''The Gates / Castle of the Ledge, which went on to become his most acclaimed release to date. By this point, most of the Campaign ''instrumentals were getting really old. Even the last few completed instrumentals were done before ''Math E.P. ''came out. The final instrumental made for the album, "Formal Attire," was an instrumental that was made for ''we don't deserve what we've been given. ''that Louis didn't really like, so he stuck it on to ''Campaign ''instead. All of this basically meant that Louis knew for months that the material on ''Campaign no longer reflected where he wanted to take his music and especially didn't reflect his ability to create songs and instrumentals. He knew that the release of Campaign ''was bound to be a massive step back from ''The Gates / Castle of the Ledge, and this once again further demotivated him on finishing the album. Finally, in April and May of 2019, Louis decided he just needed to get the album over with. He quickly wrote and recorded the last three songs and released the album as soon as it was finished. Recording and Production Given that most of Campaign's instrumentals were made around the time that the Butchazarkagan ''and ''Math E.P. ''instrumentals were in production, the sound is a bit similar to that era. The guitar is often mixed relatively low in the mix with the bass being rather audible, similar to the way that ''Butchazarkagan ''was mixed. This results in the digitally distorted nature of the guitar midi being a bit more noticeable here, as well as a de-emphasis on the noise and power of the sound that was so heavily emphasized on the mixes of both ''Math E.P. ''and ''The Gates / Castle of the Ledge. The vocals for the songs were recorded over a nearly one-year period. Music The sound of Campaign ''is typically very different than that of most of 404's discography. The wild, abrasive, and experimental rock approach of ''Butchazarkagan ''and ''Math E.P. is rarely present on this album, instead calling back to the standard alternative rock sound explored previously on Provoke Habit ''(albeit in a completely different way). The vocal style of 404 is still the same that it was for the last few albums, with a rapped and spoken word approach. The only singing on the album is on the chorus of "Pendulum Swings." Therefore, the most obvious genre tag to apply to the album, other than the obvious rock opera tag, is rap rock. This rap rock style is integrated into the theatricality of rock opera in some songs, and in other songs stands on its own. The album is far more melodic than ''Butchazarkagan ''or ''Math E.P., featuring some fairly standard riffs on songs like "Rigged Game" and "Casting Call." The song "Motorcycle Diaries" prominently features a pretty piano melody. Some songs transform theatrically, such as "One of Them" and "Heroes." There are songs that maintain an experimental rock influence such as "We've Got Your Paycheck" and "Formal Attire," but these are placed in the context of the story such that they don't stick out from the generally accessible sound of the album. Plot (spoilers) The album tells the story of an idealistic leftist high-schooler named Floyd Rivers who sets out to transform American politics. Floyd lives with his conservative father in a lower middle-class household. All throughout his childhood, his father raised him with traditional conservative values in mind. Floyd, who finds himself on the left as a teen, seeks to rebel against his father's belief system ("Rigged Game"). Floyd's view of American politics is not only idealistic, but also very uninformed. He doesn't really know much about anything as a teenager, and thus naively assumes that everything is going to get better ("Casting Call"). In high school, Floyd has a crush on his best friend Sarah. Both teens are politically-inclined and participate in socialist activism ("Friends"). Towards the end of Floyd's high school life, his father is arrested for drug dealing ("American Revenge Fetish"). This leaves Floyd, who is now 18, out on his own. After school graduation, Sarah moves across the country. Floyd, now with no one to live with, travels across the U.S. by motorcycle to meet up with Sarah ("Motorcycle Diaries"). Along the way, he stops at various cities and notices abject poverty and homelessness wherever he goes. It begins to dawn on Floyd, who previously didn't really know much about the state of the nation despite thinking that he did, just how awful things really are. Along his journey he realizes that no politicians are really stepping up to truly transform this system, and so he gets the idea to invite Sarah to be his running mate in the election. When Floyd finally finds Sarah, she is shocked and angry. Sarah tells him off and rejects him on the spot. Despite the rejection, Floyd decides to go through with running for office. He runs for mayor and wins ("Rally"). His town ends up loving him as mayor so much, that when he is 35 years old, he decides to run for president. His unabashedly progressive political campaign wins over the nation and he wins the election ("One of Them"). Shortly after making it into office, he learns that his father hanged himself in prison. A group of lobbyists pressure Floyd into accepting their funding early to get progressive candidates funded for congress and for his own re-election down the line. He doesn't want to accept it, but his lack of political understanding leads him to be convinced by them and accepting their offers ("We've Got Your Paycheck"). Quickly, Floyd begins looking to other people in his office and lobbyists to basically provide him with what to do as president. They shoot down every progressive promise that he made, as well as convincing him to go to war with an African country ("Formal Attire"). The war results in countless civilian causalities and completely goes against everything Floyd stood for before. The war also results in the death of the African dictator, which leaves a power vacuum in the country. A giant amount of protests and civilian pressure lead Floyd to decide to pull troops out of the country, promising to do it right the next time ("Heroes"). This infuriates his voter base. For the rest of Floyd's presidency, he gets by with extremely mild conceits to his voter base mixed in with concessions to the right and lobbyists. His leftist ideology has completely degraded ("Throw You a Bone"). He realizes that he failed himself, his father, and his country. Reflecting on his presidency in the final days of office, Floyd acknowledges that he has changed for the worse. He reports that the political system has done nothing but give power to the right, no matter who is in office, and that he has failed to break this cycle ("Pendulum Swings"). On the final day of Floyd's presidency, he watches a news interview of the president-elect, who is another progressive candidate who claims to be inspired by the Floyd Rivers campaign but upset with the presidency. The cycle continues. Album Art The album art was designed by artist Abdurbeats. It is a direct reference to the song "Motorcycle Diaries." The art depicts a motorcycle parked along a dingy street with a rotting storefront. Behind the motorcycle is an assortment of anarchist political graffiti. Track Listing Personnel Louis Falgout - Vocals, writing, production, concept development KC - Concept development, writing on "Rigged Game" Abdur - Album artCategory:Albums